City of Troy leads O'Brien's Epsom Derby challenge

Ryan Moore on City of Troy at NewmarketImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

City of Troy's jockey Ryan Moore will be hoping to win the race for a fourth time

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The Aidan O'Brien-trained City Of Troy heads a field of 16 for Saturday's Derby at Epsom.

Last year's champion juvenile disappointed in the 2,000 Guineas and rivals include stablemate Los Angeles.

Another Irish contender is the Ballysax Stakes winner Dallas Star for Adrian Murray.

Tabletalk, who was victorious at Chelmsford last time out for Tom Clover, was supplemented for the race at Monday's confirmation stage, for a fee of £75,000.

Ambiente Friendly has solid claims based on his win at Lingfield while Ancient Wisdom for Charlie Appleby is another strong British challenger.

Owners King Power Racing are confident about the chances of Bellum Justum who won the Blue Riband Trial at Epsom for trainer Andrew Balding.

"All is good, we're happy with him and it looks a very open year. It's quite hard to assess the form lines this year," said representative Alistair Donald.

"At least we know he can go around the track and I think we'll stay the trip. I've said before I don't know if he's quite good enough to win it, but I do think he'll run a good race.

"This is the year to take a chance with a horse like him, as there are question marks over so many of the runners, it's a very interesting Derby."

Others who were declared on Thursday are Ralph Beckett's Macduff, Roger Teal's Dancing Gemini, who was second in the French Guineas, plus Euphoric, Deira Mile, God's Window, Kamboo, Mr Hampstead, Sayedaty Sadaty and Voyage.

Betfred Derby runners and riders

  • Ambiente Friendly - Robert Havlin

  • Ancient Wisdom - William Buick

  • Bellum Justum - Oisin Murphy

  • City Of Troy - Ryan Moore

  • Dallas Star - David Egan

  • Dancing Gemini - Dylan Browne McMonagle

  • Deira Mile - Jim Crowley

  • Euphoric - Declan McDonogh

  • God’s Window - Kieran Shoemark

  • Kamboo - Richard Kingscote

  • Los Angeles - Wayne Lordan

  • Macduff - Rossa Ryan

  • Mr Hampstead - Sean Levey

  • Sayedaty Sadety - Tom Marquand

  • Tabletalk - James Doyle

  • Voyage - Pat Dobbs

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